Apparatus for flinting paper.



S. J. WATTS.

APPARATUS FOR FLINTING PAPER.

APPLICATION FILED AUG-23,1915.

Patented Dec. 28, 1915.

IN V EN TOR.

ATTORNEYS.

SILAS J. WATTS, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

APPARATUS FOR FLINTING PAPER.

- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. as, Jltlllfi.

Application filed August 23, 1915. Serial No. 47,009.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SILAS J. VATTS, a citizen of the United States of America, and residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Flinting Paper, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in apparatus for flinting paper. Apparatus of this class has been extensively used in the paper making art to impart a glaze to paper, which is in many respects superior to that obtained by calendering. This process of fiinting paper is essentially a burnishing process, wherein a polishing element under pressure is rapidly reciprocated across the paper to be finished. The latter travels over and is supported, during the burnishing operation, by a stationary bed which is arranged to feed the paper step by step after each passage of the polishing element in a well-known way. The beds for machines of this character have, heretofore, been formed of wood, commonly pear or holly, and it has been necessary to use great care in the selection of such wood on account of the peculiar requirements involved. Indeed, the difficulty in obtaining wood of the desired characteristics has, in some instances, led to the planting and cultivation of groves of trees particularly to meet this demand. Wood for fiinting machines must be clear and free from knots, checks, or other irregularities. Furthermore, the grain of the wood must be uniform, as nearly straight as possible, and the annual rings should be of substantially equal thickness and of as large a radius as possible. Even after the most careful selection, the wood obtainable can only approximate the above conditions, and much time, labor, and skill are necessary to prepare it for the machine. The wood must be cut so that the grain fibers are as nearly parallel and equally spaced as possible, and the grain must lie at a definite angle for the pitch of the grain controls the speed of the paper in a manner later to be described. This process of preparation leads to an inordinate waste of material before a piece having approximately the desired characteristics is obtained.

The object of this invention is to provide in a iiinting machine a composite bed for the burnishing process wh1ch is made up of heretofore used.

laminae of fibrous material wherein the laniinze perform the same function as the grain in the wood heretofore used. Thus, an artificially formed bed is employed as distinguished from the bed of natural material This substitution of material is, however, characterized by several features of great importance and utility in the art which lead not only to decreased cost of manufacture but to improved quality of the product. For example, since the bed is built up artificially in laminated form, it is possible to obtain the desired qualities which have formerly been sought for but only approximated with wood. The thickness of the laminae is controllable, and it is very simple to lay up the composite bed so that the laminae are parallel and so that the artificial grain is of infinite radius. The pitch of the grain can be made anything desired by quick and convenient means, and the theoretical conditions can be exactly met since every element, heretofore variable to a wide degree in the natural product, is controllable and uniform in the artificially formed bed. Furthermore, in addition to improved qualities in the bed, the cost of manufacture thereof is greatly reduced since the painstaking care in the selection and preparation of the material is not necessary. Moreover, the use of this bed does not leave grain marks on the paper, which oftentimes appeared with wooden beds, and the quality of the paper is improved by reason of this fact as well as in greater uniformity of finish. 'Finally, the inclination or pitch of the grain relative to the paper being finished controls the speed of the paper through the machine and this pitch being controllable within wide limits, the speed of the finishing operations may be greatly advanced, whereby the cost of finishing paper by this method which has been almost prohibitive, heretofore, may be greatly reduced.

For the purposes of illustrating one way in which the invention may be carried out, a single preferred embodiment thereof is shown in the accompanying drawings, and the scope of the invention will'be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings l igure 1 is an elevational view showing in diagrammatical form an apparatus for flinting paper; Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a part of the apparatus; and Fig. 8 is a perspective view showing in detail the improved bed for the machine.

Referring to these drawings, Figs. 1 and 2 show diagrammatically the essential elements of an apparatus for flinting paper. Since such apparatus has been extensively used for a long period and is generally well understood in the art, it is thought that the following brief outline of its structure taken in connection with the illustration thereof in Figs. 1 and 2 will enable those skilled in the art to understand and use the invention. The flinting machine comprises a suitable frame A wherein is mounted the bed 1, which will later be described in detail. The paper to be finished is represented by Z) and is arranged to travel in the direction of the arrows shown in Fig. 2 over the bed 1. Suitable means are customarily provided but not herein illustrated for unwinding a roll of paper to permit free feeding action by the bed 1 and also for winding up the paper so fed after the flinting operation. An arm a of large radius is reciprocable along the bed 1 and across the paper Z) by a crank 03 and a link 6, all as clearly shown in Fig. 1. The arm 0 bears at its lower end a flint or burnishing stone f, which is formed with a smooth curved lower surface to engage the paper 6 and act as a polishing element. The upper end of arm 0 is pivotally mounted in one end of a lever g pivoted at h to the ceiling z, and the other end of this lever is adjustable in an obvious manner by a screw j, whereby various pressures may be brought to bear upon the polishing stone f. In practice, bed 1 may be dished downwardly from each end toward the center so that the radius arm 0 will engage the paper with a uniform pressure throughout its stroke. This apparatus is the usual wellknown structure and is described simply to illustrate the application of the invention which is more particularly concerned with the bed 1. The latter is best shown in Fig. 3 and comprises a plurality of sheets or laminae 2 which are laid up in parallel relation, pressed together, and mounted in a suitable frame 3. These lamina: are placed in the frame 3 with their faces parallel with the sides of the latter so that the edges only of the sheets 2 are in contact with the paper 6. Thereafter, the lower face 1 of the frame and the upper faces 5 of the grouped laminae 2 are beveled relatively to the side faces of the frame 2,wl1ereby, when the face 4 is mounted in the frame A, each lamina 2 is inclined to the top surface 5 and thus the paper I) at some angle such as that indicated by 6. It should also be noted that the sheets 2 are pitched in thedirection of travel of the paper, and it is due to this pitching of the sheets 2 that the paper I) automatically feeds over the bed 1. This action is generally well known in the art as an incident to the use of a wood bed, and the action is not altered by the use of the bed shown in Fig. 3 except in the control of the action. It is believed to be due to the reaction of the grain or laminae 2 after compression by the polishing element in a direction along the pitch of the lamina, and such reaction can be resolved into two components, one of which is horizontal and serves to advance the paper. Increased inclination of the laminae causes increased travel of the paper Z).

The material of which the laminae 2 is made is preferably fibrous material which has no grain and wherein the fibers are in intimate but nonuniform relation with each other. Paper, pasteboard, and fiber fall within this category and have been found by experiment to be particularly well adapted for use in the formation of the composite laminated bed described. Of particular importance is the fact that the material should be without perceptible grain since the improved results incident to the bed depend entirely on the artificial formation of a controllable grain by the use of laminae. Obviously, therefore, a substance having a. grain would defeat the main advantage of the invention which is the absolute control of the grain by the built-up bed of laminae to obtain the theoretically correct conditions.

Although sheets of paper, cardboard, and fiber have, heretofore, been used in a lan1- inated mass for various purposes, the pressure applied to such masses has been in a direction across the laminae and not on the edges thereof as described. Moreover, the use of the laminated bed structure as a sub stitute for the wood heretofore used involves the absolute control of the grain. Thus, the desirable conditions of pitch and uniformity of grain may be exactly obtained in an economical manner. The laminae may readily be made flat, parallel, and of uniform thickness and may be pitched to any desired degree. In practice, it has been discovered that with equal pitching of the laminae in the composite bed and the grain in a wooden bed, increased speed results in the former. This increase is so marked that in order to use the composite bed in existing tlinting machines, the laminae have been pitched back to the large angle shown in Fig. 3 because the winding and unwinding mechanisms were not designed to operate fast enough to take care of the increased travel.

Thus, I have provided an improved bed for fiinting machines with an artificially formed and controllable grain, whereby improved results are obtained in the quality and speed of the flinting operations as well as lessened cost in the manufacture of the beds. It is recognized that various modifications may be made in the specific structure described for illustrative purposes without departing from the scope of the invention which is pointed out in the appended claims.

What I claim is 1. A bed for a fiinting machine, comprising, a plurality of relatively thin sheets of fibrous material pressed together and mounted in a suitable frame, the edges of the sheets arranged to form a working surface and to be subjected to pressure.

2. A composite bed for a fiinting machine, comprising, relatively thin laminae pressed together and mounted in a suitable frame, the edges of said laminae arranged to form a working surface, each lamina formed of fibrous material, wherein the fibers are in intimate and non-uniform relation with each other.

3. A polishing bed for a paper fiinting machine, comprising, relatively thin laminae pressed together and mounted in parallel relation in a suitable frame to form a composite working surface including one edge of each lamina, each lamina being formed of material in which the fibers are in intimate but non-uniform relation.

a. A polishing bed for a flinting machine, comprising, a plurality of thin sheets of fibrous material wherein the fibers are in intimate but non-uniform relation with each other, said sheets being pressed together and assembled on edge in a suitable frame, to form a uniform grain to the composite mass, the latter having a Working surface inclined to said sheets and including one edge each thereof.

A polishing bed for a paper flinting machine built up of sheets of fibrous material and having a working surface over which the paper is arranged to pass, said sheets being laid up in parallel relation to form a uniform grain and inclined to said surface in the direction of travel of the paper.

6. A machine for burnishing paper, comprising, a bed over which the paper is arranged to pass, and a polishing element reciprocable along said bed and across the paper, said bed built up of sheets of paper, cardboard, or the like, held together in parallel relation, whereby a uniform grain is formed, each of said sheets being uniformly pitched and arranged to present an edge to the paper being burnished, all constructed and arranged so that the latter is fed step by step by the reaction from the pressure of said polishing element.

SILAS J. WATTS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents Washington, D. C. 

